I’ll be running the London Marathon for Mosaic and there are just 23 days to go till ‘The Big One’. What a week! Sunday was without doubt the biggest challenge with temperatures of -2c and snow literally blowing into my eyeballs, I felt the true harshness of the coldest March in living memory in London as I ran my longest distance so far at 19 miles in 3 hours and 15 mins.

All my intention to overcome the chill and achieve that magic landmark of 20 miles just fell short as my thighs got cold blisters and my toes sat frozen in my soggy trainers.

Thoughts at the 15 mile mark were ‘come on Del you are a machine, blank out the cold in fact the cold is your friend, pain is pleasure!’ But by mile 17 my feet were telling me ‘we are two dead weights and we intend to hold you back, the cold loathes you and every step is unnatural.

I told myself for the next 2 miles ‘think of your friends and what we are trying to achieve – think of what a change we are making’. As I began mile 20 the oblique landscape and the level of fatigue made me check my toes. My toe nails had gone black and what felt like rheumatism on my 2nd toe had trapped it into not being able to rise. OK let’s live to fight another day, so I gave myself the penalty of 50 press ups when I got in. Confound it all for 0.7 of a mile……… Next time! The Easter Bank holiday is now upon us and after a warm up of 10miles in lovely sunshine today, Easter Sunday is beckoning me to complete this challenge and yes it will be mine!

If you can relate to any of this and want to send a message it would be appreciated and I’m sure it will fuel me on and even more if you can help us reach our target.

You can sponsor me and Mosaic by making a donation on this BT Donate page.

Endorsements

Asad Ahmad

The seeds of Mosaic were sown a few years before the official launch in 2007, when I was amongst several people invited to listen to an idea. HRH The Prince of Wales wanted to find a way of getting young British Muslims, often living in disadvantaged areas, to fulfil their... Read More